In a fiery address on the House floor on Thursday, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., reacted vehemently to a vote to remove Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., from the House Foreign Affairs Committee.
According to the New York Democratic legislator, the GOP was "targeting women of color" with its vote to remove Omar, which Republicans said was because of Omar's prior antisemitic and anti-American statements.
In addition, Ocasio-Cortez charged the GOP with hypocrisy for promoting Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., to prominent committee positions despite her history of divisive remarks regarding Jews. After finishing her speech, the congresswoman slammed her notepad against the podium.
Shortly before Omar was expelled from the committee by a party-line vote of 218 to 211, Ocasio-Cortez spoke out on the House floor against the "disgusting" heritage of "targeting and hatred against Muslim Americans."
She stated, "I believe one of the things that we need to talk about here is also one of the revolting aftereffects of 9/11—the targeting and hatred of Muslim Americans throughout the United States of America.
"And this is a continuation of that legacy," Ocasio-Cortez continued.
She continued by denouncing House Republicans' assertions that their former stance on the Minnesota Democrat's actions was "compatible" with the vote. Rep. Paul Gosar, R-Ariz., who was censured by Congress in 2021 for tweeting a meme depicting anime cartoon characters killing one another and including AOC's face, allegedly made a former "threat" against Ocasio-Cortez, who also addressed it.
Omar has come under fire for using antisemitic cliches, such as claiming that the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, a lobbying organization, purchased and paid for pro-Israel members.
"Consistency? Except for the bigotry and encouragement of violence against women of color in this body, nothing about the Republican Party's ongoing assault makes sense.
One of the most esteemed committee assignments in this Congress was given to a Republican Caucus member who had threatened to kill me, Ocasio-Cortez claimed.
"Don't tell me this is about consistency," she retorted. When you have a Republican caucus member who has discussed Jewish space lasers and a plethora of other tropes and who has also promoted her to some of the top committee assignments in this body, don't tell me that this is about denouncing antisemitic slurs!
Ocasio-Cortez made the following declaration at the end of her speech: "This relates to the targeting of American women of color! Don't tell me, since while my life was in danger, I received not a single apology!
The congresswoman left after hitting a notepad against the podium.
Some of O Casio Cortez's detractors disputed her use of the word "color" and pointed out that white males on her committees, such as Reps. Adam Schiff and Eric Swalwell of California had also been ousted after Republicans gained the majority.
Unfortunately, Ilhan Omar won't be joining the House Foreign Affairs Committee.
The Democratic congressman said last week to CNN's Dana Bash that she had no idea the word "hypnotized" was a cliche. "I had no idea that there were stereotypes surrounding Jews and money. That aspect of the journey has been illuminating.
What a voyage it has been, too. Omar would have you believe that her constant stumbling into classic anti-Semitism, along with that of her best friend Rashida Tlaib, who gets a "calming feeling" when contemplating the Holocaust's aftermath and thinks pro-Zionist Jews exploit "regular Americans" for "their profit," etc., is just a coincidence. How likely are things?
Since she was in her early teens, Omar has resided in the United States. She finished high school in a significant American metropolis. She graduated with a B.A. in political science and international studies from North Dakota State University.
She must have taken in a lot of American culture over the years. You're telling me that over all this time, with all her numerous encounters as a government worker and an academic "fellow," she never once overheard a cliché about Jews controlling others or being driven by greed? That's a significant achievement.
Since Omar thinks rootless cosmopolitans are brainwashing the world for the "Benjamins," it stands to reason that she shouldn't have lost her position on the House Foreign Affairs Committee. For downplaying 9/11 and associating the United States with theocratic terrorist groups like Hamas and the Taliban, she should have lost it. She is unprepared for the position in terms of ideology or morals.
She was denied a seat as a result of Nancy Pelosi setting a new precedent by not only denying Kevin McCarthy's picks for the committee on January 6, effectively turning it into a show trial but also by removing Paul Gosar and Marjorie Taylor Greene from their positions on the committee due to offensive remarks they made. Republicans used Omar's standards to topple her.
The Minnesota congresswoman told CNN's Jake Tapper that "we should punish and sanction Boebert by stripping her of her committee assignments, by rebuking her language, and by doing everything that we can to send a clear and decisive message to the American public that if the Republicans are not going to be adults and condone—condemn this, that we are," when Democrats introduced a resolution to remove Lauren Boebert from all House committee assignments over a stupid, bigoted joke about Omar.
Democrats passed up the chance to act like responsible adults and "send a clear and decisive message" to the American people about Omar's bigotry in favor of a weak resolution replete with platitudes that denounced the treatment of Leo Frank and Alfred Dreyfus and condemned anti-Japanese discrimination during World War II, Islamophobia, and the America First Committee but left out Omar.
And it's all right. Resolutions in Congress are theatrical nonsense. We have direct access to the opinions of every member. But Omar hasn't received any significant criticism, save for the odd weak condemnation from certain Jewish Democrats.
It's hardly surprising that Omar's rhetoric is already accepted in intellectual and activist-leftist circles. Her supporters would argue that by reading the Hamas Charter into the Congressional Record, she was only "critiquing" Israel.
The fanatics at The Washington Post will claim that criticism of her is "inextricably linked to her faith," regardless of what she says or how frequently she lies. The victim is the bigot.
Of course, Omar is free to hold any beliefs she chooses. Her supporters are free to keep electing her to Congress. Additionally, the House majority has the authority to deny her committee appointments.
McCarthy had the authority to unilaterally exclude Adam Schiff, who is perhaps the most dishonest member of Congress, and Eric Swalwell, a victim of a ChiCom honeypot, from serving on the intelligence committee, but a majority of the House was required to bar Omar.
Making it a practice to object to partisan committee nominations might not be the best approach. Unilateral disarmament is also undesirable.
Comments / 392